Low’s men make it six of the best

The result sees Bassett continue their flying start to life in South West One East following last season’s promotion and they are now up to second in the table behind leaders Maidenhead, who are the only team to have beaten Alan Low’s side this term.

Returning to action after a fortnight without a fixture, the break did not seem to hold Bassett back as Phil Bardwell barged over the whitewash in the opening skirmishes at Ballards Ash, converted by skipper Dave Hogg.

Ieuan Clements and Gavin Ougan also dotted down in a dominant first half, with further points from the boot of Hogg putting the hosts 22-3 to the good at the break.

Abbey made life much tougher for Low’s men after in the second half and the home side had to settle for just a second try from Bardwell, as well as a conversion and penalty from Hogg, to increase their haul.

Head coach Low said: “It was a really good performance. We had a couple of boys missing so we had to make a few enforced changes but the performance was superb, one of the best we have put in this season.

“I think Reading Abbey were a better side than the final scoreline suggests. They were really strong up front and made life difficult for us but we played very well.

“The guys are slowly getting used to the systems that we are trying to play, which we have been implementing for a number of years, and one of our tries came exactly from one of our preferred plays, so that was very pleasing.”

Although Low is delighted with the way his troops have settled at a higher level, he is still keen to see further improvements made even after such a convincing performance.

“Coming off after the game, the players thought they did better in the first half than in the second half but the coaches thought it was the opposite way around,” said Low.

“That was quite an interesting thing to come out of the game and we will sit down and talk about where we think we can improve again for next week’s game.”